Ten thousand people were awaiting us in the field. As we walked thru the crowd, with several hundred soldiers aligning themselves along the edges to protect the meeting, each soldier with a revolutionary banner on his bayonet, a great roar of joy and relief came from the crowd. They had a living demonstration that armed force was not all on one side; and that the International Delegation which the Wuhan government and Chiang Kai-shek had united in welcoming to China was also standing squarely in support of them in their struggle against counter-revolution. The support of the International Delegation was doubtless a great moral stimulus; but it was the support of the bayonets that really changed the situation.
Chinese crowds are very emotional; this meeting was the most enthusiastic one I have ever participated in. Out from their hiding came the people's leaders; spoke with us from the platform; and from the meeting, the crowds with their leaders went into the city to re-establish revolutionary order. They were successful without a serious struggle.
Next morning, after 36 hours in Kanchow, our boats resumed their journey down the Kankiang. But we left behind us a different city from that we had found. Counter-revolution had for the time been overcome. Two weeks later, we received a despatch at Hankow, telling of the arrest, trial, and public execution of the murderer of Chen.
In my memory these experiences stand out vividly, not only because of their dramatic quality, but because they contained in a simple, concrete situation, a picture of the condition of a great land of 482 million people. Kanchow was a picture of China.
5. An Idyllic Interlude
Ten hours from Kanchow we stopped for the night at the village of Liangko. All quiet, peaceful. We strolled thru the streets, towards the school on the hillside pointed out to us as the Kuomintang headquarters. At the school we found the secretary of Kuomintang, the school master, surrounded by 40 or 50 young boys who live there.
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